Sunday, November 26, 2017

A beautiful bike ride in Holland!

Cycling was my passion during my college days. In fact, my friends used to call me ‘Jet’ because of the way I ride the bicycle. Netherlands (In German, Neider = lower, land = country) is unarguably the best place to ride a bicycle. If you still want to argue, let me take you through my dream ride.

Colourful tulips, at its’ full bloom, in the second half of April attracted me to Keukenhof tulip gardens. After getting drenched in the beauty of splendid tulips at ‘The Garden of Europe’, I wanted to return to Amsterdam. Unexpectedly, a large number of orange bicycles grabbed my attention. I approached the stall and choose to take a ride through one of the three available routes.

A separate one-way tar road for the bicycles with green grass on either side of the road made my eye balls go big. But, my eyes were on stalk when I noticed the yellow and white flowers in the green grass along the road. The end of such a beautiful path took me to a canal and a pond on either side of the road. If the white lotus flowers surrounded by the large green leaves in the pond look stunning, the swans around the flowers just made my jaw drop. I took a break to admire the beauty. When I resumed my ride, the sight of numerous bridges connecting each house across the canal only filled my eyes with more admiration towards the manmade nature.

The list of disbeliefs continued to follow my ride when I came across an old wooden bridge with no barriers. The bridge opened my path to acres of bright coloured tulips fields separated by small canals. If the sight of such a beautiful view can be described as ethereal, a ride in the fields amidst colourful tulips just fails my words to describe the experience. I took another break to spend more time in the tulip fields and experience the heavenly moments. A further ride for two miles took me to a dark path that resembles a thick forest. With an eerie ambience and no biker in sight, only my thoughts of fear tried to break the deafening silence. At the end of the tunnel comes the light; at the end of the dark path comes a new field of tulips.



I took a diversion from the usual path and rode towards the smaller villages nearby. A small village welcomed me with a large field of red and yellow flowers. I parked my orange bicycle and ran into the field as my joy knew no bounds. A further ride into the village took me by the biggest surprise. There are at least 30 floats (a decorated platform behind the truck) getting ready for an annual flower parade. Each float has a different theme (such as angry birds, Thailand, EU, fashion, etc.) and was decorated gorgeously with beautiful flowers. A 20 kilometer return trip to Keukenhof only made my heart heavy, with plenty of memories.